Nikolai stood in front of Manny with a sad look. Manny stood in disbelief, unsure what to feel.
"It's been awhile, Manny. You've grown up so well." Number 2 smiled.
"Un-Uncle Nikolai…" Manny whispered. "Y-you're supposed to be… dead." Nikolai's smile faded and he nodded.
"You have the same reaction Lee Seng did when he saw me, again." Nikolai stepped over, keeping eye contact with Manny.
"You met… Lee Seng…? So it was all true?"
"I guess he told you. You two must still be close, hm?"
Manny didn't answer Nikolai. He looked down at his hands and Nikolai simply nodded.
"Why are you here?" Akali asked Manny. "If you're here, where's Lee Seng and the others?"
"How do you know we were all together?" Manny asked Akali.
"We got eyes everywhere." Akio answered, moving past Manny and heading to the front entrance. Manny looked over to Akali for a better explanation.
"He watched you guys." Akali pointed at Nikolai. "I told him not to, but he was determined to 'do his job right.'"
"I wasn't the only one who watched." Nikolai told Akali. Car doors opened with engines shutting off. Manny looked past Nikolai and noticed a small crew of people stepping out. "I had some help from some allies I made along the way."
"The door's shut!" Akio shouted.
"Did they already put it into lockdown mode?" Akali broke off from Manny and Nikolai and headed over to help her brother.
"I don't know! I can't open it!"Akio moved away from the door and watched his older sister stick a light dagger into the door, opening it.
"C'mon. We don't have much time." Akali motioned.
"Manny, come." Akio motioned. "The rest of you know your jobs, right?!?"
"Yes, sir!" The small group shouted.
"C'mon, Manny." Nikolai motioned. Manny turned and followed Nikolai into the building.
"So, what're you doing here?" Akio asked Manny. "Why aren't you with my little brother?" Manny's mind reeled. He didn't know where to start. Unlike the parking lot, the lab was deserted. There wasn't a soul around. Akali led the group down the hall. Akio looked at Manny, who sighed and moved quicker to match Akio's speed.
"We half-assed our way over here through Lee Seng." Manny began. "Lee Seng and Keng were able to create a portal to get us into the city. That's when all hell broke loose. Robot monsters hunting for people and killing them. We made pit stops along the way, only to somehow be dragged into the Academy because of Poseidon."
"Victor Callas?" Akio clarified.
"Yeah. We went into the Academy district and found out a couple Deimons were there. The D31 folk. Who knew I'd be running to catch up to Lee Seng and the others only to witness Number 7 dead." Manny's face grew dark. "The others don't know what to say about it and Lee Seng says she was a Deimon. I don't know who to believe. Lee Seng left us behind and the others ran after him. They chose me as their leader but they flock to Lee Seng like he's the actual leader and I'm just a front…"
"That's… a lot to take in, dude." Akio looked at Manny. "I hate to break it to you, but Abby was influenced by the D31 juicer."
"Really?" Manny looked up. He searched for a lie in Akio's eye. He waited for Akio to say 'just kidding! It's just a joke,' but got none of that.
"She deserted the Numbers some time shortly after we got word that a village blew up." Akio continued. "That's when all the news about you guys showed up. 'Terrorists.' The D31 guys made their appearance through the chaos and used you guys as clout to push their beliefs onto the whole city.
"Akali and I were sent off on a mission to try to get some D31 guys, but that's when we found out these Deimons are working under our noses. We had to fake our deaths and make contact with Nikolai after all these years."
"And you wouldn't believe what we found out." Akali came to a stop. A large steel door stood in front of them. "Dammit, they locked the place down. How are we supposed to get in now?"
"I'll handle it." Nikolai moved towards the door. He started to summon runes, placing them on the door. "Do you know why the Creator still researches, Manny?"
"Because he wants to strengthen Biohumans for reclaiming our old homes?" Manny guessed.
"Not quite." Nikolai motioned for everyone to step back. He backed up, holding a rune in his index and middle finger. "It's because he's trying to reclaim a long lost lover from years ago." He flicked his fingers and watched the runes on the door explode. The metal door burst, flying forward and hitting the wall before descending downwards. Nikolai turned to Manny with a serious expression. "Do you know how many failed attempts were made until the Numbers came to be?"
"I read something about this… Wasn't it like… five hundred or some attempts?" Manny replied. Nikolai shook his head.
"It was over six hundred attempts. Six hundred people were subjected to Dr. Chang's experiments. Six hundred failed attempts that directly broke the cardinal rule of experimentation." Nikolai sighed. Footsteps drew the group to turn and look in the opposite direction. A woman and a man came to a stop, saluting before talking.
"No signs of anybody in any of the campus buildings." The woman reported. "I fear the operation has already begun."
"We don't have time to stand and chat, then." Akali looked at the others. "We should get going. Start the second part of our operation."
"Yes, ma'am." The woman nodded. She looked over to Manny before saluting and turning around and running off with the man.
"C'mon, we don't got time. We'll explain on the way." Akali motioned. Manny followed the Numbers, descending down the stairs into the underground.
"Do you know why the underground was made, Manny?" Akio asked.
"I thought it was for other projects." Manny answered.
"The underground was made to hold the Failed Ones. When the Biohuman serum was in its early stages, the serum would wildly alter a regular human into something unrecognizable. Unstable Dark Matter energy was injected into a human causing them to transform crazily. The first wave of experiments were the most simplistic yet the most dangerous. They kept a lot of their intelligence, sometimes even growing more intelligent than we could ever dream of.
"This woman was Dr. Chang's lover. What started out as a job to get extra money, turned into a living nightmare romance. Dr. Chang and your father Dr. Valentin worked together on the serum that would turn Dr. Chang's own lover into a monster."
"D-dad was involved? He isn't a Biology doctor at all!"
"Exactly. He wasn't. His job was to study these beings and create something that would hold them for their lifespan. He and Dr. Chang were good friends. Dr. Chang focused on cell and DNA research. He got into Dark Matter theories which led to the Biohuman serum. Your father, on the other hand, worked on creating technology that could support Dr. Chang's research."
"But Dad said he became a Biohuman because he saw an ad for it… T-this can't be true." Manny shook his head.
"But it is." Nikolai stopped on Floor -07 and looked up at the young man. "When he saw things were going well with Number 1 and I, he decided he would take the mantle after Zoe was involved."
"So Zoe wasn't entirely the reason why…?" Manny whispered. Akio sighed and put a hand on Manny's shoulder, drawing the young man's eyes up to him.
"In the end, Zoe was the final reason why he did it. Everything he saw… Everything that happened, he didn't want it to happen with Zoe. Children, teenagers, mothers, fathers, lost adults… They all succumbed in some way, shape or form to the early symptoms." Akio sighed.
"And the worst part of it all… He didn't know that Lee Seng was the result of the Creator's love for 001." Nikolai added.
"What?" Manny turned. "What did you say?"
"Lee Seng's the result of a Failed One and the Creator."
"T-that can't be… H-he's very much us… The tails and changes only happened two years ago…" Manny whispered. "It can't be true!"
"Lee Seng was implanted into a woman. She died after giving birth to her so the woman Lee Seng loved was just a robot created to shield Lee Seng from harm. Akio and Akali were assigned to watch the robotic woman which would eventually die due to corruption within herself."
Manny looked at Akali and Akio, who kept eye contact with him. Manny shook his head and turned around. He cursed under his breath. 'This is so messed up!' Manny thought. 'Who would do something like this…? This is so very—'
The underground shook hard. Nikolai, Akali and Akio turned their attention downwards. Something was happening further in.
"No more time to dish out information." Nikolai told the others as he continued downwards. "We need to get down to Floor -50 quickly. If nobody was up on the upper-campus, that means everyone is down there."
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